"In a world that has begun to believe that financial profit is the only religion, sometimes not wanting money is more frightening to capitalist society than acts of terrorism."
Arundhati Ray

28 May 2007

Li-lax

Another weekend flew by, but this one was much better than the last one with lots of things going on and wonderful weather instead of snow.

Friday afternoon I met up with Jon and the gang at the Ship for a couple of pints to celebrate Jon's convocation for his Master's degree from U of C. The party moved to Jon and Sara's house for food and more cocktails. Eep! Cayenne pepper pecans! After some knitted fashion displays, I had to head out around 8:15 to meet the gang at the Plaza Theatre for the Friday night flick of the Fairy Tales Film Festival. We saw "Outing Riley" -- it was well-written and quite funny.Saturday morning, I was off to the velodrome for the first day of the Spring Cleanup Track Race. The Flying 200m started off the day, but I didn't make my debut until the 4K pursuits later in the morning. I clocked a 5:08, which was good for fifth place and only 4 seconds off my PB. The match sprint quarter and semi finals were next, followed by the Scratch Races and the match sprint finals. I worked hard in the scratch race but couldn't get enough juice in the legs for the final sprints.

I left the track around 4:30, worked on a service call quickly when I got home, then Joe and I were off to the Inglewood Lawn Bowling Club for the OutGames Organizer Appreciation BBQ. We had a few beers there, food and a few rounds of Lawn Bowling, then we slipped over to Swan's to say hello to everyone quickly, then headed back downtown to meet the gang at Ryan's, where everyone had gathered for a pre-ARGRA dance party. Joe and I had picked up some $5 off entry coupons from Brad for the dance so we had to get them to them to the guys before they went. After they all headed out, Joe and I went home.I got up Sunday and headed to the track again. The Kilos were first, then the Points Races and the Keirins. I did a 1:15 on the Kilo -- not too bad but not too good. In the Points Race I managed to bridge up to the lead pack of three and we finished the race that way with the chase pack about 200m behind, ending up in fourth. Why is Shawn picking his nose?Good representation by the four main Alberta track teams this weekend - Juventus, Bow Cycle, Synergy and Bicisport

After the racing was done around 1:30pm, I headed back downtown and met Doug at the apartment. We headed out onto 4th Street for the Lilac Festival and met up with Calvin and Doug soon after. We toured the entire strip from 12th Ave to 25th Ave, and then settled into the Wildwood Beer Gardens for the rest of the afternoon. Line-ups everywhere for everything. I guess you can't expect much else with crowds in excess of 100G.Because the beer lines were so long, of course we got two drinks at once so that we didn't have to get into line again so soon. This got us into a funny conversation about 'double fisting'. Shawn was telling me that on his recent trip to the UK, he announced that he was 'double fisting' in a crowd of family and friends and got a big explanation as to how offensive a term this is in the UK. The comparable term there is 'double parked'. I never really thought of the term in this way -- I guess us Canadians are naturally perverted and don't give it much thought!

In the center of the beer gardens were 'clusters of 'mos' -- we had pretty much taken over the beer garden by 5pm. Around 5:30pm, like clockwork, it started to rain, so the four of us plus Shawn scurried to the Fleur de Sel restaurant on 4th St where we had heard that there was traditionally a good party after the festival. Needless to say with $5 martinis, $2.50 shooters, and a clientele that was suddenly 100% gay, things got out of hand on the inebriation side! Some people were even having a hard time staying put in their chairs! We finally got out of there around 8:30 and everyone headed home. I made it to the apartment, made spaghetti sauce and was sound asleep on the couch by 9:30.Tonight, Joe and I are meeting some of the others at the Plaza for tonight's Fairy Tales selections -- "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Seven Secrets to Perfect Porn". The rest of the week outside of work will be spent at the track!